Invictus
by DemonRoseAlexiel
Summary: In life, there are decisions that must be made despite overbearing circumstances. The choice is to either resign yourself to your fate, or to keep fighting to gain control of your life as best as you can. A continuation of the original manga set a few years after it ended. -Contains spoilers -Contains OC's -May be OOC -Contains violence
1. Prologue

**Note:** Hi there, everybody! Name's Alexiel and I have been reading fanfic for about two years now. However, this time around I feel that I should try to begin writing my own work and contribute to the good cause of fandom! This is my very first fanfic ever on and I decided to go with HikaGo because I have been completely obssessed with just about everything about it. The characters, the music, the dramatic times everyone places a stone on the board and the light flashes from their fingers. I wanted to write this fic as a continuation of the original manga because, as many fans know, I hated how it ended. WHYYYY SAII WHYYY? So I have decided to use the magic of fanfiction and continue this story as I see fit. Please leave a review and critique my work so that it can get better. Thank you! P.S. If I start to get out of character please let me know.

**Warnings:** focused on OC's, spoilers for those who haven't read the series, violence, description, death, main character is an OC

**Disclaimer:** Do I really have to do this? _lawyers stare down _Fine Fine. Geez. Hikaru no Go and all of its characters belong to Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata. I do not own them in any way shape or form. However I do own all of my characters and this story. Thank you.

* * *

_Prologue_

_Game 0-The Beginning and The End_

There was nothing but darkness. Not the sort of darkness at night that calms and soothes people into their dreams and fantasies at night. This was the sort of darkness that froze and consumed. That seemed to take hold of everything just to eradicate it until it became part of the black abyss. There was no feeling, no hope, no despair, no matter. Just nothingness.

A tingling feeling started to ride up his spine. It moved to his arms, channeled down to his legs, and all over. The darkness began to fight back against this feeling, continuing to try to consume him in its eternal oblivion. However, he was not about to give up, not when he was this close to breaking free.

Feelings became thoughts. Thoughts became words. Slowly, but surely, he was beginning to come back to his senses.

_Think._

He let the tingling feeling rush up to his head and he felt the feeling explode in the base of his mind.

_Remember._

Images flooded past his eyes as he saw scenes of his life come flooding back to his memory. He remembered what he looked like first. He had long, flowing violet hair that reached to just about beyond his waist. His skin was pale with the look of a life long lost. The eyes were just as abyssal as the darkness, mysterious, mystfying, and deep as the ocean just before dusk. A robe of white and red that had always enrapped him with pants the color of the blue, open sky. His fan, yellow and straight, with a nobleman's hat atop his head with a black hue.

He remembered his passion next. A game of black and white stones, placed on a wooden board with a grid with nineteen by nineteen lines. The star points shone brightly in his mind, opening the way to new possibilities and endless potential in a world he knew well. Every time he placed a stone on the board, a cool, round piece that would lead the way to his victory, or a gateway to teach others the beauty he saw. This place, this game, this magnificence he existed for. Go was the next thing he remembered.

Finally, he remembered his life. Or should I say, afterlife. The countless days spent in an ancient palace full of intrigue and eloquence. A challenge from a rival for a position he needed. The horror of the day he was accused of cheating his beloved game. The devastation when life decided to rear its ugly side and cast him out of the capital, branded an innocent man a traitor. The pain for losing everything he cared for, and the grief that drove him to take away his life in that river all those centuries ago. Waiting and praying for a chance to keep going, keep striving for the Divine Move he cared for so much. The joy at being heard of for the first time by a young boy named Torajiro. The games the boy allowed him to play, and the success they achieved together, earning the boy the name of Honinbo Shusaku. The horror as he slowly watched Torajiro decay from a disease he could not fight off. The grief of losing his best friend and being pulled back into the board as blood stains were imprinted on a Go board's surface. The relief he found in being seen about two centuries later by a modern boy of the name of Hikaru Shindo. The influence he had on Hikaru as he began to step into the modern Go world, first in a Go club, then as an insei, and finally a pro. The curiosity he held for the strange things in the modern world which confused him to no end. The desperation in trying to feel again, trying to interact with the world he had been lost to for so long. The blossoming of Hikaru's skill and the joy it brought being the boy's teacher. Seeing the influence Akira Toya and others had on the youth. Encouraging Hikaru in continuing to pursue Akira, lecturing him in the ways of honor and humility, shaping his skills to one day even rival his own. Playing the best go player in the world, Toya Meijin, and winning in a titanic clash of wits. The realization that Hikaru had found what he had been searching for all this time. The desperation in asking why it had to end like this. The anger and envy he felt towards the boy who had the future, and he who was slowly slipping in to the nothingness. Praying to God for more time, another chance, any more time to keep going, keep fighting. The truth that he was to leave Hikaru, the boy that he had come to love and cherish as a student, friend, and even brother. The resignation as he and the boy played that one final game and letting himself go into the nothingness, saying goodbye to everything he knew. Until today that is.

He remembered his name. **Sai. Fujiwara no Sai.**

_See._

Light started to shine as Sai opened his eyes. The whiteness invaded his conciousness and blinded him for a moment. After a time the whiteness became blurs of color, then shapes, and finally details of the world surrounding him.

He was on a hill surrounded by grass waving in the breeze. He looked around in wonder as he decided to get his bearings. A road winded off in the distance with the hum of morning traffic on its daily routine.

_I truly have returned_, Sai thought as he began to grin and make his way towards the town the road led to.

The sign on it read _Welcome to Maboroshu._

* * *

(_It all started with an end._)

The pain was starting to get to her. Red marks burned into her flesh and seared her skin in patches. She began hobbling to nowhere, anywhere, anywhere away from the source of her pain.

Her lips were slit open and down the middle, and bruises covered her face and hands. The black coat she wore only seemed to highlight the bruises against her pale skin. Her deep purple hair was in knots and started to wrap itself around her face, blinding her vision.

Its not like she could see anyway, with the blackness of terror running behind her eyes. She stumbled on the sidewalk as she ran faster, hoping her broken body would keep up with her.

_Make this pain stop._

The memory of being forced down against her will, beaten with a long, blunt object she could not remember. His feasting eyes filled with rage and hatred, consuming her in an orange storm of terror.

_I'm tired of being afraid._

She came to rest on top of a resevoir that held the town's water, the late afternoon sun making the water reflect the trees in their arboreal dress for autumn.

_I don't want to take this anymore._

She remembered countless times of pain and agony as she tried to get herself home. Hiding the scars behind long sleeves and bandages, excuses and lies.

_I don't want to lie anymore._

She stared into the cool water, listening to its lapping in the gentle breeze as it beckons her forward. Her breathing is jagged as she slowly walks to the edge.

_I don't want to fight on anymore._

Memories of rejection and guilt resurface, but are pushed away as all she feels is numbness, getting closer and closer to the edge.

_I don't want to remember anymore._

She breathes outward as a voice shouts in the distance. She does not hear as she leans forward.

_I don't want to feel anymore._

The water embraces her, takes her into its cold oblivion. She does not care as the blackness takes her into the abyss.

_I don't want to live anymore._

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Well I hope you enjoyed the Prologue. Again please comment and review!


	2. Game 01

Hey there again people, Alexiel here! Thanks for all the feedback, I feel finally ready to update and get this thing started. By the way, the prologue was kind of meant to be vague, didn't want to give too much away. ;) Anyway, I just want to let you know that this story will shift points of view based on which characters are introduced in the story. I have no idea how to play Go, so this story is going to be more focused on the characters themselves and their reactions to each other. For the first point of view, I will go with Sai of course! Without further ado, lets get this shindig rolling. (_wow I can't believe I just used to word shindig_)

**Disclaimer:** Hikaru no Go, trademarks, logo, music, plot line, characters, etc. all belong to Viz Media, Yumi Hotta, and Takeshi Obata. This fanfiction is mine. MINE I SAY! Just kidding I'm not that self-centered. :)

_Game 1-Hoping and Seeking_

Maboroshu is not what you would consider a major city, but it wasn't a run-of-the-mill shanty town either. It is settled on the coast of Japan, with pleasant white beaches to lounge around in on those lazy summer days for school-weary students on holiday. It always had a pleasant salt smell that seemed to enshroud the entire town in a dream-like fog. The town itself was populated by about 100,000 people from all corners of the country. Beyond the beaches the town had been built into a coastal forest that encroached on the shores. It was here that a millennium-year old ghost had found himself wandering in for only God knew how long.

Sai was beginning to wonder if he ever would find someone who could hear him. Ever since he had arrived in Maboroshu, he had been forced to wander this unfamiliar place relentlessly for hours on end. Through neighborhoods, businesses, abandoned moon-lit streets, the local swamp of forest, the visitor-littered beach, the economically booming ports, and all the alleys in between he had called to out to everyone, anyone, to hear his voice calling out.

At first, he had kept track of the days by the movements of the sun rising and sinking back into the deep, bottomless waters of the ocean. Many times seeing the sun beckon towards town with its rays and colors streaming out behind the shadows of the ships rising and floating on the gentle tides. Many times he had seen the moon look on and turn away from the landscape, as if the world had embarrassed it to hide its face in complete darkness, only to gain confidence in its facade to face the Earth in all its splendor. And for a ghost who was long dead, sleep was not a luxury Sai could take.

For many nights now he had to begin to wonder why God had decided to allow him back into the realm of the living. Was this a gift of mercy, or a punishment for the taking of his own life? To see the world, but not be able to interact with it, locked behind a screen of impenetrable glass.

_Why, Why, WHY!_, Sai had thought to himself over and over in those nights, _Why must I suffer like this? What have I done to deserve this?_

He thought these thoughts with tears of desperation flowing down his pale complexion. He was beginning to lose hope of ever having someone hear him, see him, comfort him.

Above all, he was lonely. You see, for a ghost who had been trapped in a Go board for most of his supernatural afterlife, only to be seen and heard by two people, Sai was almost always alone.

_Hikaru..._, Oh how he missed that boy, his student, his friend, his brother. The boy he had been with for over two years, never leaving his side. Through thick and thin, hardship and triumph, sadness and joy, they had gone through together. However, as soon as Hikaru discovered the move that would have changed the fateful game that Sai played against Toya Meijin over the Internet all those years ago, the Hand of God, Sai realized that the sands of time were running out of the bottom of his hourglass.

Sai had tried to warn Hikaru of his departure, but by the time he finally did tell him, Hikaru had brushed him off by saying it was just an excuse to be self-centered and play more Go. Sai had never had the chance to say good-bye, and that was what hurt the ancient spirit the most. The fact that Hikaru had been left alone without any explanation whatsoever. Sai had no idea what had happened to the bright-eyed hopeful pro, and he was anxious to see him again.

_I miss Hikaru, but right now I have to find a way to reach him, I don't even know where I am. _Sai looked up to the giant cratered sphere in the sky with tearful eyes as he sat down in a park surrounded by trees shedding their summer greens for harvest yellows, golden reds, and fiery orange hues. Indeed, he did not know where he was, and for this reason, Sai decided to not leave Maboroshu until he found out where Tokyo was to get back to the boy his heart yearned for.

If the boy could see him. That was one other fear Sai dared not think right now. He had enough trouble getting through a day without his anchor, a game of Go, to support him.

And so it was on this surreal night that Sai pondered many fears swirling in his incorporeal mind, reluctant to leave the place he had settled in encircled by the prideful moon's light.

As the moon decided to hide away in the behind the waters until the nest day, the sun appeared to take its place, never afraid to shed its life-giving light on the peoples that lived here. Another day passed by as Sai once again found himself wandering the streets of the modern day. Men in business suits hurriedly boarded subways on their way to work in the major cities or the buildings that seemed to cut through the heavens, at least to Sai's eyes. Children lugged their sluggish frames to school, and rapidly burst through them as the bell sounded the end of the day.

It was on of these children that captured Sai's interest as he entered a building with a sign that boasted a grid with black and white circles. Shrieking with insurmountable joy, Sai realized that the boy had just unintentionally led him to a Go salon. Without hesitation, Sai passed through the door behind the boy as the electronic bell announced their arrival;

This particular establishment was named _Twin Colors_, and it was a fairly decent place. The walls were covered a mossy-green paint, the floor made of tiled oak floors. The counter was somewhat disheveled with prints of _Go Weekly_, scattered about the place. Middle-aged men bearing cigars and ashtrays filled the back half of the salon with rings of tobacco smoke as they placed their hands on the boards that were laid on every available table. A man in his twenties stood at the counter, holding, predictably, the latest issue of _Go Weekly_, intently studying the text and occasionally sipping his canned coffee that was lazily placed near the edge, just awaiting an unlucky customer to knock it over and end up with black liquid all over their new clothes. The man had short cropped auburn hair and wore a simple white T-shirt and blue jeans. His face was square, but still had a little of his boyhood chubbiness. It was this disinterested onlooker that the boy that Sai had decided to follow spoke to first.

Without glancing up to address the boy with reddish-brown hair and curious eyes, he said,"Entrance fee is 500 yen for students."

"Kawahagi, don't you recognize your own cousin, or are you too obsessed with that magazine to even glance my general direction," the boy curtly protested.

"Ah, Hideo, sorry about that, I just thought you had decided to actually stay for awhile and actually play a game before you start mooching off of my money," Kawahagi instantly replied with a witty grin spread across his face.

"Hey I don't mooch, I just feel like you have too much cash jingling in your pockets. You know robbers are more likely to pickpocket someone with a wad full of cash that can be heard, I just wanted to make sure you didn't lose it."

"Says the kid who comes in here every day pleading, 'Kawahagi, I need some yen for that new issue of that super awesome explosion manga that just came on the shelves, I just _gotta _have it.'" Kawahagi said this in a mock-high pitch voice attempting to mimic a prepubescent tone.

"Quit trying to sound like your two and just give me the money already." Hideo's amber eyes clouded in annoyance.

"Fine, fine, but do me a favor and stick around and play these old grandpas, I need your youthful boyish look to attract more _attractive_ patrons to this place." Kawahagi showed his sly witty grin as Hideo retracted the yen from his fingers.

"Sure, as long as keep getting your _generosity_, I'll do anything you say," Hideo snarked back as he promptly and surprisingly politely asked an elder man to please play a game.

Sai observed the scene with amusement of the interaction between the two younger inhabitants of the Go salon. Hideo took his seat across from the gentleman he had decided to compete with. Waves of bliss shuddered over his being as the two opponents chose for color and settled into the mindset needed to play a game of this duration.

"Onegaishimasu" was spoken out of the youth's mouth as he accordingly placed his first stone on a the lower right star point. Clacks of stones were exchanged over the course of the waning sunlight, the players unaware of their ghostly spectator.

_This boy has much promise,_Sai commented as he approvingly smiled behind his sleeve, _His moves are precise and confident. His game is very developed for someone of his age, and he is not afraid to take a little risk when need be. I wonder who taught him how to play this well?_

It turns out that the boy with amber eyes had actually been taught by the very cousin he just spoken to earlier. Hideo's cousin was an avid Go fan, so when he had enough money, he opened one of the first salons Maboroshu had seen in quite some years. Hideo's family had moved here to get away from the bustling city of Kobe, and Kawahagi had immediately taken to the new arrival. Hideo was actually quite mature for his age, and carried himself with an air of humility for his superiors, with a calm disposition in most cases. However, as evidenced by the earlier conversation, the seventh-grader had a mischievous side that he showed only to his close friends, and when on the board of black and white stones.

Hideo politely thanked his opponent for the game, having won by 2 and a half points, and began to clear the board and gather his belongings.

Sai was tempted to stay in the salon due to his yearning for his game, but he decided to follow Hideo, seeing promise in the copper-haired boy as someone he could potentially get to hear him.

When the bell tolled again tolled their departure, Sai hurriedly glided behind Hideo, who had decided to sprint home due to the waning sunlight. Surely, if he ran, his parents would not notice he had been gone for so long.

The journey took the two travelers past the business-laden downtown into the forest ablaze with autumn fever. Birds chirped and skittered away as Hideo's feet crunched through the leaves on the ground, with Sai following after. The ghost had figured the boy had decided to take a shortcut home through the trees, and soon stopped as the boy ran out of breath near a body of water. The far side was consisted of a modern concrete dam designed to keep the water contained for the town's water supply. Maple leaves danced in the air as the breeze lightly settled them on the surface of the clear man-made lake.

Hideo had stopped to catch his breath when he heard a sudden scraping coming from the direction of the dam. Sai followed the boy's gaze to the top of the dam where they saw a girl dressed almost completely in black. _What in the world is she doing up there?_, Sai wondered with complete confusion.

Hideo was obviously thinking the same thing, because he called out to the girl just standing there, as if a girl on a dam was a regular occurrence.

Her hair was matted in a tangled web of knots containing dirt, brush, and who knew what else in that midnight-purple mess. Her clothes were black jeans, black boots, a studded belt, a blue tank-top, with a trench-coat like jacket, also dyed black. The way she walked suggested that she was in some severe pain, as her steps faltered and stumbled as she got closer to the top of the dam. Evidence of injury was on her slender, pale face, coated with bruises and jagged cuts oozing blood all over her already mess of hair. But the thing that attracted Sai's attention the most were her eyes. Her eyes were mirrors of an icy-sky blue that seemed to pierce against the blackness of her dark appearance. However, the expression in her eyes drew him in the most. Her pupils were almost non-existent, shrouded over with a blank expression he knew too well.

_Utter despair._

She began to draw closer to the edge of the dam, seemingly blind to where she was going.

"Hey, you, you're gonna fall! **Hey can you even hear me?!**", Hideo began screaming at the top of his lungs.

The more he shouted the closer she came to the edge, the desperation pulling her closer to the water. Then, to Sai's absolute horror, she did one thing.

She drew her breath out, leaned forward, and plunged headfirst into the water.

Whew, that took a long time to write! Feels like I'm writing a novel here! Well, I hope you guys liked the first chapter. You'll just have to wait to see what happens next. Ooh, I love cliffhangers! XD (actually I hate cliffhangers but they are essential parts to a story)

Anyway thanks again and remember to leave a review, pm me, and let me know what you guys think! Farewell!

-Alexiel


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